Opinion: A few questions for Nathan Phillips about CovCath encounter

Native American advocate Nathan Phillips, of Ypsilanti, Mich., sits for a portrait in Ypsilanti on May 2, 2015. Phillips gained national attention following a standoff between Phillips and a group of Catholic high school students went viral on Friday, January 18, 2019 in Washington, D.C.(Photo: Chris Stranad, Chris Stranad)

It has been suggested that Nathan Phillips, the Native American activist at the center of the recent controversy in Washington D.C., should be invited to Kentucky to sit down with the Covington Catholic kids to resolve their differences. I think Phillips should answer a number of questions before that happens.

Here are some of them:

Why did you march up to the Covington Catholic students and start banging your drum instead of walking up to the adults from the Black Hebrew Israelites who were viciously insulting not only them, but members of your own group as well?

Did you hear the epithets that the members of this known hate group were shouting at the these teenagers?

In talking to the news media about the incident did you refer to the students as "the beast" and the Black Hebrew Israelites as their "prey"?

Video evidence shows members of the Black Hebrew Israelites calling the students "incest babies" and singling out one of their African-American classmates with a racial slur. Also, did you hear a member of the group yell at the Covington Catholic boys, "Your president is a homosexual," "You give faggots rights," and that "the Bible condemns homosexuality"? To which one of the boys shouted back, "They’re still human!" Did you hear any of those exchanges? Would you describe the behavior of the Black Hebrew Israelites towards the students as "respectful"?

Did a member of your group engage a student telling him to "go back to Europe where you came from, this is not your land"? (Before you answer, know that it was caught on video.) Do you consider that respectful?

It has been reported that you attempted to disrupt services at Washington, D.C.’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception this past Jan. 19, during a Saturday evening Mass with 20 or so other Native American demonstrators and that security forces at the church had to lock the doors to keep you and your group out. Is this true? And if so, what were you trying to accomplish by disrupting that service? Do you have something against Catholics specifically?

Are you aware that many of your white, liberal supporters have taken to social media and advocated violence against the young man with whom you "faced-off"? Not only him, but the entire student population of the school and the school itself. Do you approve of these threats of violence? If not, have you spoken out against them?

Do you think anyone who wears a MAGA cap is a racist, anti-Native American, homophobic and sexist?

You told the media, that the kids "were in the process of attacking these four black individuals" from the Black Hebrew Israelites and "looked like they were going to lynch them." A new two-hour video of the event shows nothing of the sort. How do you explain that?

You said you heard the boys chanting "Build the wall." Again, neither video or audio of the event proves that to be true. How do you explain that?

You said you are willing to come to Covington and talk to the teenagers and adults involved if you were given "certain assurances..." What sort of assurances are you talking about?

There were news reports that you claimed to be a Vietnam war veteran. The New York Times has corrected its own reporting on this matter. It has now asked the Pentagon for you service record. Did you serve in Vietnam? Did you ever say you served there when you didn’t? If so, did you say that you served there because you thought it would give you greater moral standing compared to the high school kids involved in this incident?

You told The Enquirer that you were "disappointed" in CovCath student Nick Sandmann’s public statement because "he didn’t accept any responsibility" for what happened during the incident. You are a 64-year-old man. He is 17. How much responsibility have you accepted as the grown-up in this situation?

Since the incident, many of your statements to the media about what happened have proven to be distortions and wild mischaracterizations. Some media organizations have gone so far as to calling some of your statements outright "lies." Why do you think the teenagers you have called "beasts" and accused of wanting to "lynch" black people, should believe they can sit down and talk to you in good faith about anything?

Those will do for a start.

But one more thing. Someone at the Diocese of Covington thought it would be clever to comment on the initial negative reports about the incident and trashed their own kids without knowing the whole story. Typically, Catholic church officials decline to comment on embarrassing controversies until the statute of limitations has run out, if you know what I mean.

Shame on them too.

Gil Spencer is a Hyde Park resident and member of the Enquirer Board of Contributors.